


Toilet-bound K Howard

by CsjLam



Series: Six tbhk au [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss, 地縛少年花子くん | Jibaku Shounen Hanako-kun | Toilet-bound Hanako-kun (Manga)
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Fluff, How Do I Tag, Hurt/Comfort, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Six tbhk au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-12-04
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:21:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 19,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27663287
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CsjLam/pseuds/CsjLam
Summary: “If you knock on the third stall of the girl’s bathroom three times, the seventh mystery of the Kamome Academy will grant you a wish.... in exchange for something precious to you.”Anna never believed these silly tales, but here she was, in front of the third stall, ready to summon this infamous ghost.If only she knew how her actions would lead to the downfall of her life.———A six tbhk au fic, mainly centred around the last three queens.
Relationships: Anne of Cleves & Catherine Parr, Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard, Bessie (Six) & Anne of Cleves, I’ll add more as the story progresses - Relationship, Katherine Howard & Catherine Parr
Series: Six tbhk au [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2064648
Comments: 25
Kudos: 25





	1. The beheaded mistress of the toilet

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Thank you for choosing to read my fic! I’m really excited to see how I can mix both of my favourite fandoms into one story. If you’d like to know more, visit my tumblr (ender1821) or ask in the comments! I hope you’ll enjoy :D

The sounds of a nearby radio began echoing through a dark room, its static noise hid the whispers of a girl calling out to her listeners. A figure walked along a road dimly lit up by a couple of lightbulbs hanging from the top of this seemingly endless void. Their hand reached out from the darkness, turning the knob on the radio, tuning the sound to reveal a silvery voice,

“Are you familiar with the seven mysteries of the Kamome Academy?”

“The most popular and powerful one of the seven is called ‘Hanako-san of the toilet’, you can find her inside the third stall of the girl’s washroom on the third floor of the old building in this academy. People say that if you knock on the stall three times, then call out her name, she will grant you a wish, in exchange of something precious to you.” Bessie told her best friend, who was listening to her attentively.

“Why do you like telling me ghost stories so much?” Anna asked after she was done with her speech. The classroom of class 4A was filled with indistinctive chatter, like always, several groups of students were having their respective conversations. The one that Anna and Bessie are having is the usual for the both of them, Bessie would rant about some paranormal events, and Anna would listen.

It’s safe to say that Bessie was obsessed with these kinds of stories, but Anna didn’t mind listening to them. Some of them were actually quite interesting, so she let her daily musings continue. She does find it somewhat strange that most of these stories revolve around their school, but she knows that they’re all fake. Nobody really believes that ghosts exist, Bessie was just telling her fictional stories, right?

Though, the idea of making any of your wishes come true was a tempting deal. Everyone has something that they strive to achieve, something they long to become, something they wish to forget. If you could make anything happen at the cost of something else, would you be brave enough to accept this offer?

“I just have a knack for finding spooky tales.”

“Which are all fake?”

“If you want to keep on saying that, then have some proof first!”

“You don’t have proof of them being real either.”Anna smirked, she thought that the argument had come to an end, but then one of their classmates heard their debate, “why don’t you go prove that then?”

The two turned to see Maria, who was holding a stack of books and passing by their seats. She walked up to them, then dropped the things she was carrying onto a nearby desk.

“Wait....that’s a good idea, Vice President!” Bessie had a smile spread across her face while she was still looking at Maria, who gave her an annoyed response, “please just call me by my name.”

“Yeah, ok,” Bessie gave her an offhand reply, then turned back to Anna, “you wanna see who’s right? Go and summon one of the mysteries.”

“Seriously?” Anna spoke up from her seat, glaring at the vice president for inserting herself into their debate without even asking.

“I personally don’t believe in these outrageous tales, but it seems like none of you have proof of it. Go ahead, if you’re that certain about your stance, you shouldn’t fear a ghost that lurks inside a toilet of all places.”

That’s how Anna found herself inside the girl’s bathroom, staring at the third stall. She couldn’t believe that she’d do something as stupid as this, but she was determined to prove her friend wrong. Besides, it’s not like anything would happen. Knocking on a door isn’t that hard of a feat, but the part where she had to say the apparition’s name was kind of hard, especially since she wasn’t sure on the name’s pronunciation. Nonetheless, she took a deep breath, then walked up to the stall.

She formed a fist with her hand, then slowly knocked on the door.

Knock.

Let’s just get this over with, she thought. She didn’t know why, but her surroundings were abnormally unsettling. The sunlight pierced through the stained glass window of the washroom, making the room appear more colourful. The dust around was causing the room to be stuffy, to a point where it irritated her nose.

Knock.

She found the room to be eerily quiet. Her knocking rang around the room, causing the scene to be more dramatic than it needed to be. Another thing weird about the room was that she was the only person there. Anna thought that there would be at least a few students occupying the other stalls, but when she arrived, no one was in sight. All the doors of the other stalls were open, the third stall was the only exception to this. Were the students scared off by this ridiculous rumour?

Knock.

If something did show up, what should she do? It’d be foolish to defy a paranormal being, so maybe she should think of a wish, just in case something actually appears. Everyone had something that they find desirable, Anna was no exception. Even though her life wasn’t particularly rough. She didn’t need any more money, she wouldn’t brag about it all the time, but she was pretty wealthy. She probably didn’t need to wish for health, either. There is one thing that she’s insecure about....

“Hanako-san, Hanako-san, are you there?”

Then she waited. After she most definitely butchered the name of this probably fictional person, she stepped back from the stall. A few seconds passed, then she sighed in relief. Of course this wasn’t real, what was she thinking? Some random ghost popping up out of nowhere and granting her a wish?

The door of the third stall suddenly creaked open, snapping Anna back into reality. Actually, this shouldn’t be reality, the following events should be a dream instead of reality.

The door swung open as slowly as possible, but there was nothing on the other side.

“What the.....” she mumbled to herself. Anna examined the stall, it looked exactly like an ordinary toilet. Maybe it just opened because she knocked on it too hard. There’s nothing there, so there’s no way it could’ve opened by itself. She was slightly spooked by the door opening, but she convinced herself to think that she’s just mistook it as a sign of paranormal activity. Well, that would’ve been the case if a voice didn’t abruptly introduce themselves.

“Well hello there~” the voice of a girl came from behind her, but she didn’t feel anything moving. She heart immediately sank. She was either going to get possessed, killed or-

“It’s kinda rude to call someone here then say nothing, ya know?” Anna’s fight or flight instincts kicked in, she can still try to escape if she ran now..... or that’s what she thought. She swung around, aiming her elbow at the voice, but she didn’t make contact with anything. No, her arm passed through the body of the voice like it was air.

“Jeez... did you just call me here to attack me?” The voice complained. Anna looked up, finding a girl dressed in her school’s old uniform. However, they wore a choker that had a bright sparkly pink ‘K’ charm hanging from it. Aside from that, the girl also had a white seal on her left cheek, with a red-coloured symbol ‘封’ written on it.

“Y-you....y-you’re a-”

“Ghost? Well duh, I am the seventh mystery of this academy, Hanako of the toilet!” The girl floated closer towards Anna, who promptly stepped back, “so, assuming you’re not actually here to just swing a fist at me, what’s your wish?”

“Huh...?” Anna continued to stare at the girl with a pair of incredibly shocked eyes. The panic she was feeling caused her to completely forget that this apparition grants people’s wishes.

“Wow, I thought you knew about the rumours about me already before coming to summon me!” The ghost put up both her hands in amusement.

“You....you’re not going to...kill me? Take over my body?”

“Well, that’s a bit too old-fashioned for my tastes, but if that’s your wish, then I guess I have no other choice than to-” the ghost’s statement was cut off by a frantic Anna swinging both her hands in a panic, “NO! I mean- please don’t do that!”

“Oh well, then what’s your wish....” the girl trailed off, asking Anna to give her name to the ghost.

“It’s..... Anna. From class 4A.” She answered reluctantly, hoping that she’ll be able to survive her encounter with this mysterious being.

“I see!” The ghost glided back onto the floor, then took out a piece of paper and a pencil to write down the newly acquired information, “state your wish, Anna!”

An awkward silence then filled the washroom, the ghost stared at Anna with great intent, but she struggled to say her wish out to Hanako.

“....aren’t you gonna wish for something? I mean, everyone has something they want... don’t you want something?”

“I... is there a way for you to make me look more.... beautiful?” She eventually forced her request out to the apparition, who didn’t question her hesitation.

“Hmm.... there are a few ways...” she began to think, “maybe we could... do a little surgery on your-”

“NO! I take back what I said!” Anna stopped the ghost before she could pull out anything.

“You can’t just take your wish back!” Hanako exclaimed, but Anna continued to defy the ghost, so she had no other choice than to offer something else, “fine then, we can do something that doesn’t cost you that much....”

Anna and the self-proclaimed ‘Hanako’ traversed through the hall of Kamome Academy, with the ghost floating around Anna and reading a book.

“Let’s see.... this says that you can try using your hobbies to change other people’s views on you!” She then closed the book with excessive force, “what hobbies do you have?”

“Umm.... I’m a part of the sports team of the school?” Anna responded to the ghost. What she didn’t realise was that she looked like she was talking to nothing, making her look like someone insane, but let’s not tell her that....

“Ah,” Hanako blurted, fidgeting with the charm on her choker, “that won’t do.....”

“I thought so...” Anna peered down at the ground in disappointment, but the ghost’s movement piqued her curiosity, distracting her from her current dilemma, “why do you wear that? Shouldn’t the charm be... ‘H’? Why is it a ‘K’?”

“Do you want to know what’s underneath it instead? I could show you that!” The ghost asked, already placing their hands onto the back of their neck. Anna seemed to know what was under that choker, from the traces of red around their collar, she could certainly say that whatever was on their neck wouldn’t be a pleasant sight at all. Therefore, she quickly stopped the ghost in their tracks, assuring them that she was just curious about the charm and nothing else.

“Hmm....” the ghost didn’t want to answer the question, so she directed Anna’s attention to a room that she conveniently spotted, “oh look! Maybe we can get you a new hobby!”

The ghost then proceeded to float towards the art room, leaving Anna in bewilderment as to why she avoided the question. It wasn’t really that useful to prod into the business of a ghost, but she couldn’t help but be interested in the peculiar accessories the spirit wears.

Anna opened the door to the art room, but not before the ghost permeates through the wall, entering the room with an unusual method. There wasn’t anyone else inside the room except for a blonde girl who was extremely focused on a piece of artwork.

“What am I supposed to do, paint something?” She whispered to the ghost who was fixated on the student. She quickly snapped back from her trance, then answered Anna’s query, “just do whatever you think can make you seem... better, I guess?”

“What do you mean? You’re supposed to be helping me!” She hissed at the ghost.

“Well I’m not that good at art! Maybe try asking that girl to help you!” She pointed to the girl, who managed to hear Anna mumbling to herself and was glancing at the duo, “can I help you with anything?”

Anna was instantly embarrassed after the girl had called out to her, but she was still able to respond so she doesn’t seem even stranger, “um.. yeah. Could you... maybe help me out with... art?”

Hanako watched as Anna approached the girl, but she stayed silent as she watched their exchange, keeping her eyes on the blonde.

“Sure! What would you like to try? I have some papers here that you could fold origami with, or maybe a canvas for you to paint with, or...” Anna listened in utter confusion, but she didn’t want to seem even more idiotic, so she just chose the first option the girl had offered, which was origami.

“That’s a good choice! People don’t think that it is that fun, but trust me, you’ll be hooked after you’ve tried it!” The girl smiled brightly at Anna, then proceeded to grab a stack of materials, “you can call me Jane, and you’re...?”

“I’m Anna.” She introduced herself.

The pair then began working on their mini art projects, with Hanako lingering at the back of the art room. Anna was following Jane’s instructions pretty well at the beginning, but her attention started to wander away. This wasn’t something that she’d take part in normally, but the girl’s enthusiasm persuaded her to give it a shot. Besides, if she didn’t give it a try, then Hanako might go back to her original suggestion.

As her eyes began observing the area, a black piece of paper caught her eye. She studied the piece with a raised eyebrow, but before she could ask Jane why there was an odd piece of paper out of the stack of pure white ones, a hand swept the piece away.

“Ah, don’t worry about this. I was trying out a new brand, but it didn’t work, so there’s a spare piece left here.” She told Anna, who couldn’t help but find the blonde girl’s tone to have changed slightly once she noticed the black piece of paper. The supernatural behind them flew towards the paper that Jane had hurriedly stuffed into her pocket, but before they could get a better look at it, a hand of a human swung at her, making her fly back in surprise.

When she realised that Anna was the one who did it, she dejectedly floated out of the classroom, leaving the two behind. It was definitely strange for a ghost to be this interested in a random student’s art project. Jane looked at Anna with a puzzled expression, she did just swing her hand for no reason after all. Anna quickly dismissed herself, saying that she had plans to meet someone. After that, she rushed out of the art room to catch up with Hanako.

“Hey! Wait up!” She basically yelled at nothing, but the ghost turned around, “hm?”

“I’m sorry for that, it’s just... you can’t mess with some poor girl’s stuff! We’d get caught!” Anna apologised, still panting a bit from running.

“I guess... that paper seemed a little strange. That’s all...” Hanako accepted the apology, but now, they were back at square one. The art room isn’t an option anymore, so what could they do?

“Don’t you have some magical items? You’re a ghost, you must be able to cast spells!” Anna smiled brightly at the ghost, which made the other ponder for a while. In the middle of their thoughts, a white blob shaped like a cartoon spirit with a red circle in the middle of it hovered over to Anna, with a bag that had a seal marked on it on the top of said spirit. She picked up the small bag from the spirit, examining the contents of it closely.

A few pieces of vibrant and shiny crystals were inside. At least that’s what Anna assumed. The texture of it was odd, like the scales of a fish.

“Don’t touch that!” The voice of the ghost boomed at Anna, but before the bag could be returned to its original owner, Anna had decided to force the ghost into a tricky situation by putting a piece into her mouth.

“Ahhh!!! Don’t swallow it! No matter what! Spit it out! Spit it out!” The ghost panicked, swirling around the girl rapidly to try and figure out how they could get the piece out of Anna’s mouth.

“Tell me what this is, or I’ll swallow it! I’m serious!” Anna said with the piece still inside her mouth, making her sentence a little unclear.

“Alright! Fine! It’s a mermaid scale, it is used to build an inseparable bond between two people-”

Hanako wanted to continue their elaboration, but the sound of something being gulped down made their nonexistent heart drop.

“Why did you swallow it?! I said not to swallow it!”

“I... I have to try... I just have to get someone else to swallow this right?”

Anna ran down the hall with insane speed, with the bag dangling loosely from her right arm. This was her chance. She didn’t know anything else about these mermaid scales other than the fact that they could help her. She was determined. She didn’t care about what could happen next. All she knew was that she had to try.

The memories of everything that has happened ran through her mind. What led to her being like this?

_“We have to break up.” The voice of a boy reached her ears, gaining her attention among her group of friends._

_“What?” She asked in confusion._

_“I can’t be with someone who looks like you. All my mates are making fun of me for dating you.”_

Down the corridor she went. She didn’t even detect the streaks of hot tears running down her face as she sped through. Every inch of her body was burning. No, every inch of her body was suddenly as cold as ice. Well, who cares anymore? All she had to do was find that special person, nothing else had mattered to her. Not even the fact that her skin was slowly turning into the scales of a fish. The same scales that she had once ate had found themselves right back onto her body.

She tried to take another step, but all that made contact with her feet was water.

Everything changed in a matter of seconds. Anna thought that she was still inside Kamome Academy, but now, she’s inside a boundless body of water. Even worse, she’s plunging down deeper. Her eyes shot wide open, her body stayed frozen.

The sensation was hard to describe. Her skin was practically freezing while her insides burned. Her tears mixed with the water around, but the warmth of it remains.

It was her fault for not listening to Hanako. If she wasn’t so stubborn about it, maybe she wouldn’t have ended up here. Alone, drowning in her sorrows and trying so desperately to run back into the light. Will this be the death of her? Succumbing to the deep depths of this unknown territory?

She expected to fall to her doom, but within a few more seconds, she found herself placed in an even weirder place. The room she now found herself in was filled with extravagant decorations and furniture. Some even had parts of gold and jewellery. The environment was gorgeous, but she couldn’t take all the room’s glory in at the moment. She had to first clear up a few of her many questions.

First off, where in the world is she? Her guess would be some sort of castle? A palace? Given the extremely expensive-looking parts of her surroundings, that’d be her best guess.

“Something wrong, your majesty?” A disturbingly familiar voice called out to her, but as she turned to face the owner of the voice, the next set of peculiar events unfolded before her. A fishing net crashed into the room, causing everything in the vicinity to turn back into water. She was grabbed by the net and had not choice but to leave the scene once again. The only glimpse she managed to get of the person was... their bloody neck.

That person bid her farewell with a smile.

Those events happened so fast, she couldn’t process any of them. All she could understand at the moment was that she’s back in her world once again, proven by the empty classroom. Still, something seemed out of place. Her vision was clouded by a little shade of blue, and there were bubbles coming out from... her mouth?

She tried to gasp, but nothing came out of her mouth. She frantically looked around, but a hand approaching her made her attempt to scream in terror again. The hand stopped at one point, and instead opted to poke at the glass that trapped Anna.

“Having fun in there?” The voice of Hanako appeared, calming Anna down. Well, she’s not very calm right now, but the appearance of Hanako made things seem a tad bit better.

She tried to make a gesture or a signal. Anything that could help her communicate better with the apparition. Hanako took note of the fish flailing inside the fish bowl, “oh, so you’re only panicking now? I told you not to swallow that, but here we are! You’re a fish now.”

A.... fish? Was Hanako joking? There’s no way she turned herself into a fish just by... swallowing...

She stared at her fins in indescribable fear. She’s transformed into a fish because of the curse of the mermaid scales. What a great day.

“What a ‘you reap what you sow’ moment! You didn’t even bother to listen before eating an ancient artefact! Are you actually insane, Anna?” The ghost continued to berate the red fish, but the rant was momentarily paused when the classroom shook.

“Oh... I see that I have a new servant ready...” a loud spooky voice rang through the classroom, announcing their presence to the two inside.

“Ah... now I have to deal with this too...” Hanako complained through gritted teeth.

The room violently shook repeatedly, until a pool of water found its way into the centre of the room. A huge and hideous fish came crashing into the room, causing everything to fall. The enormous monster swept away all the desks and chairs in their way, positioning themselves directly in front of the two. Hanako seemed unfazed by the entrance, but Anna shut her eyes tight, preparing for any impact.

The pink ghost commanded their two spirits to spin around their hand, creating a mini tornado. It developed into an orb of swirling wind around their arm, but the energy all dispersed, revealing an axe.

“Sorry there, but I haven’t exactly fulfilled this human’s wish yet,” she said with a wicked smile, “so, I’m afraid I can’t let you take her.”

“Hmph, just because you’re a school mystery, you think you rule the place? I’ve existed centuries beyond you, don’t even dare defy my rule!” The gigantic mermaid roared again, but Hanako didn’t falter at all. Instead, she lifted the axe up with ease, “then I guess we’ll have to do this the more... brutal way.”

The monster launched their first barrage of attacks, but the seventh mystery dodged them all instantly. The apparition rushed towards the mermaid, weapon in hand. Anna opened her eyes to see what was happening, since the impact she anticipated never arrived. She didn’t catch much of what had happened, but at least she was able to see Hanako’s attack.

A huge slash sounded across the classroom. The axe was swung up into the air, while the monster yelped in immense pain. A huge wound was created on the body of the mermaid, its scales went flying everywhere in the room, accompanying the monster’s cry in pain with the sounds of raining scales.

“I really can’t stand it when someone thinks highly of themselves.” Hanako stood in front of the mermaids body, mocking them before the huge corpse sank back down into the puddle of water. She extended the hand that held the axe, and the two orbs floated around it, hiding the weapon again for the supernatural.

After everything returned to normal, Hanako walked back to the undisturbed fish tank, casually picking up one of the pieces of mermaid scales on the floor along the way.

“Now then,” she announced as she sat down next to the tank, “what do we do with you?”

“Hm... like I said to that mermaid, I haven’t really helped you with any wish just yet...” she mumbled to herself while Anna kept swimming in the tank, imitating the action of pacing in a circle.

“Oh! I know!” She jumped up after an idea had hit her mind, flipping the scale in her hand like a coin.

“Your wish will be for me to turn you back into a human, or in other words, I’ll try to limit the effects of the curse on you!” She suggested to the fish after she caught the piece out of the air, in perfect timing as well.

Anna couldn’t refuse the offer. It wasn’t like she had a choice anyways, she didn’t want to live the rest of her life as a fish! She rapidly nodded, which looked more like a fish moving up and down as quickly as possible.

“Wow, you seem eager!” The ghost commented on Anna’s movement, then put the scale on their tongue, but not before reminding Anna of something that she totally forgot, “as for your price...”

The ghost gulped down the scale, then a loud crash followed after.

Anna found herself back in her human body, with the fish tank on top of her head and her entire body wet. Oh, how she’s missed being in a human body....

Wait, something’s wrong, and it isn’t just the mention of a price. She looked down at her arm, only to find a few patches of scales.

“Oh, I said I’d minimise the effects, but I guess you’ll still get side effects like these.” The supernatural said as they handed a towel to Anna, “you’ll be able to get rid of those if you keep yourself dry.”

The next moments were filled with dead silence as Anna wiped her body, slowly but surely drying herself off. Soon, she finished drying herself on the floor of the classroom to find a hand in front of her.

“Come on.” Hanako invited the girl to stand back up, which Anna accepted without any suspicion.

“....wait, I thought I couldn’t touch you before?”

“Ah, it must be the bond of the mermaid scales.” The ghost replied swiftly, then changing the subject, “as for your price for that wish...”

Anna’s heart stopped instantly. What could the ghost possibly want from her? If the wish was just as important and life-changing as the cost, then this isn’t going to be anything good for the her....

The ghost continued to think, and a bright idea had come up in their mind after a while of pondering.

“Become my human assistant.”


	2. The exorcists of Kamome Academy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanako and Anna investigate the mystery behind ‘the faeries’, but a student is hot on their trail....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wrote this chapter pretty quickly (at least for me), hope you’ll enjoy! Feel free to ask about anything in the comments!

Along the dark path, the radio calls out to the void once again, yearning for attention from anyone. The figure glance at the radio with great anticipation, turning up the volume for the voice to echo through the quiet pit.

“Where do your belongings go when you forget them? If you don’t pay attention to them, will they eventually fade away from existence, never to be seen again? No, my dear listeners. They will still be here, awaiting your return.”

“Have you heard the rumour of the faeries?”

“Please just let me go!” Anna pleaded to the ghost, who dramatically bursted out of the toilet stall with their hands posed like an ‘X’, “nope!”

After the incident with the mermaid, Anna had made a wish to Hanako, and in return, she’ll be Hanako’s new human assistant. That’s why they’re here in the washroom once again, with Anna scrubbing every inch of the area clean. The dust that once irritated her nose was no more, but at what cost?

“You don’t get to complain! You accepted my offer!” The ghost said as they floated towards Anna, who was currently sweeping the floor of the bathroom.

“Fine, but there’s gotta be something else other than... cleaning? I thought you’re an almighty spirit! Why do you care if the toilets are clean?” Anna sighed out, stabbing the broom into a bucket of water.

“Just because I’m a ghost, it doesn’t mean I can stand the toilets being dirty! Besides...” the apparition trailed off, staring at their fingers awkwardly, “it gets lonely here...”

“Don’t tell me you made me clean just because you wanted someone to hang out with.” Anna then carefully put the broom back leaning against the wall, making sure it wouldn’t accidentally fall. She walked over closer to Hanako, who was still playing with their fingers.

“....do you not like being with me, Anna?”

She was taken aback by this question. By no means was she saying that she hated spending time with the ghost, but her advances did make it seem like she was.

“I like being with you.” Anna reassured the ghost as she placed a hand onto the ghost’s own pair of hands, stopping them from fidgeting and successfully gaining their attention.

“....but can we please do something else other than cleaning toilets?”

The ghost’s somewhat hollow pink eyes met Anna’s eyes of red. In that moment, she felt a little tinge of happiness, and she couldn’t help but crack a smile on her face. Not only that, but something is stuck on the tip of their tongue. There’s something they wanted to say, but...

“I’ll try to find something that’s more entertaining than cleaning then.”

Anna smiled at that sentence right away, then ran away to cheer, leaving the ghost there with their thoughts. Would it be fair to her if they told her?

Hanako pushed those thoughts back down. They have Anna now, and that’s all that matters to them.

This is enough. Don’t ruin the moment.

“The faeries are creatures that can take away your belongings miraculously, even if you were keeping a close eye on it! If something you’ve been using suddenly disappears, then it must be the work of the faeries! Don’t try looking for the faeries though,” Bessie rambled on enthusiastically while Anna paid full attention to her explanation, “it’s said that if you look at them directly, they’ll take your life!”

“How do you always seem so cheerful, even when you’re talking about people potentially dying?” Anna pointed out, but was instantly distracted when a few yells and shouts appeared across the classroom.

“Has anyone seen my lunchbox? I swear it was just inside my bag a second ago!”

“Where did my textbooks go? Did you take them?”

“Oi, give my stuff back! Whoever you are, this isn’t funny!”

“Do you still think that these tales are fake?” Bessie asked as she watered a plant near the classroom’s window. She’s the one in charge of the class’ plants, and she’s in the school’s gardening club, so it was natural to see Bessie tending to a potted plant. When the students were still deciding what clubs to join, she tried her hardest to persuade Anna into joining the same club as her, but in the end, all the persuasion was in vain.

She wouldn’t want to force her friend into doing something they didn’t want, so she gave up eventually.

“I....” Anna tried to think of a response, but after meeting Hanako, her stance on this subject completely changed, “I guess, you seem like you know a lot about them, so I’ll trust you on this.”

“Besides, I can’t really deny it after hearing all those yelling.” She added, the mysterious disappearances of these objects were weird, but she has seen things far beyond strange at this point. All of these shouldn’t faze her as much, but there was still a hint of fear in her mind.

She turned to look at the view outside the windows, only to be abruptly jump scared by a fellow classmate. Ever since meeting a supernatural, she’s been getting spooked quite a lot.

“What’re you guys talking about? Ghosts again?” One of their peers approached their seats with a bright smile across their face.

“Like always,” Bessie responded to the classmate, who didn’t seem surprised at all, “do you think these disappearances are caused by the faeries, Maggie?”

Their classmate put their hand on their chin, then began theorising in their head about this question. However, before she could’ve given an answer, she noticed something abnormal about Anna.

“Where did the stuff on your desk go, Anna?” She questioned, pointing towards their desk.

“What?”

“Hanako! Hanako!” Anna yelled as she ran into the girl’s washroom with a panicked expression, frantically calling for the ghost.

“Oh! Are your classes over?” Hanako popped out from the third stall as soon as they heard the voice of Anna, but she cleared Hanako’s confusion after their question.

“Are there supernaturals called ‘faeries’? They’ve been taking everyone’s stuff!” Anna asked, grabbing Hanako’s clothes and slightly shaking the ghost to get their full attention.

“Oh... those guys...” the ghost mumbled out, “they’re just a bunch of regular supernaturals, no need to worry about them that much.”

Anna didn’t accept their answer at all. Regular supernaturals? They’ve been taking away everyone’s possessions ever since the day began! There’s no way she can accept the ghost’s laidback attitude right now.

“Are you kidding? They’ve been messing with every student! We need to do something about it!” She shook the ghost even harder, adapting to a more aggressive approach.

“Alright! Let’s go see what’s wrong,” the ghost sighed out, which successfully stopped Anna’s violent shaking, “we’ll have to search the whole school.”

A student stood outside the room of the student council, with their hands shoved into the pockets of their school uniform. Their sapphire eyes wandered through their surroundings, admiring every little nook and cranny of the environment. The warm rays of the sun pierced through the windows, adding a shade of orange onto the hallway.

Groups of people walked past, muttering and whispering about the disappearance of countless of objects around the school, the more prominent ones being the locker doors of students.

The observer outside the room listened carefully to the gossiping, furrowing their eyebrows as a sign of curiosity.

Their body leaned onto the wall next to the entrance of the room, making them seem relaxed. However, that wasn’t the case at all. Their feet tapped onto the wooden ground of the corridor, developing a basic rhythm.

They soon found themselves to be staring at the clock impatiently. The hands of the clock ticked down, and their feet tapping gradually became in synchronisation with the small red hand.

The door swung open, but it wasn’t the person they were waiting for. Instead, it was the vice president of the student council, Maria.

“Oh, Catherine? Are you waiting for the president?” Maria asked as she closed the door with yet another stack of books clutched tightly with her arms.

“Yeah, do you know when she’ll be free? I need to ask her something.” The person pushed themselves away from the wall, and was now facing Maria.

“I’m sorry, I have no clue when she’s going to be available.”

“Ah, no worries, I’ll just ask her later.” They responded with a dejected tone, then began walking away from the vice president.

Catherine Parr was one of the more promising students of the Kamome Academy. Like the president of the student council, she always managed to get the highest marks out of everyone in their grade. She was a dedicated and hardworking student, but apart from that, she also has a few quirks of her own.

One being that she’s an exorcist.

She grabbed onto her ‘umbrella’, then proceeded to push through the crowds of students, who were all still gawking at the sight of the missing locker doors.

“Are you familiar with the rumours of the faeries?” A familiar voice came from a radio that a group of students were currently listening to, which made her stop. Interested in the topic of the radio, she slowly lurked over to the circle of students discussing ‘the faeries’.

Some of the parts of the school were a bit frightening, and that’s not an exaggeration at all. Nonetheless, Anna found herself wandering through the empty and dark halls of the academy. With what Hanako called a ‘hakujoudai’ by her side, she took another bold step forward.

The spirit was one of the powers Hanako had. With the red and blue spirits by the seventh mystery’s side, they helped Hanako in performing an assortment of different actions. For example, while she was defending Anna from the grasp of the mermaid, they had summoned their weapon through the hakujoudais.

At least she had some form of defence with her, in case something decided to attack her out of the blue. The red hakujoudai floated beside her, giving her a wave of reassurance. Was hunting down supernaturals something she thought she would accomplish in this life? Absolutely not, but here she is now, with cold sweat running down her forehead and legs that were trembling a bit. She took a deep breath, and decided to march on forward.

“What am I even looking for?” She cursed under her breath. Her frustration was somewhat justified, since Hanako just left her with a hakujoudai and pushed her out to an unwarranted search. Some descriptions would’ve helped her immensely, but she’s got nothing to identify the faeries. Not only did the identification of the mystery matter, but how in the world was she supposed to random find a paranormal being?

Her train of thought had ended suddenly, when something on the ground had caught her eye.

“A...textbook?” She said to herself as she picked up the object from the floor. She looked ahead, and found a trail of objects unsystematically laid on the ground.

“This is.... not the strangest thing I’ve seen, but it means that thing is near, right?” She turned to ask the white blob next to her, which didn’t respond to her question at all.

“Rude.” She criticised the spirit, but it didn’t have any sort of reaction to her accusations.

She followed the path haphazardly created by the items, subconsciously sucking in her breath. She could feel her heart almost throbbing out of her chest, but was it in excitement or in fear? Her mind wasn’t sure of it, but she considered it to be both.

Her steps grew more and more prolonged as she walked into the darkness of the academy’s hallway. Until a strange gargle had stopped her in her advance.

“....what was that?” She mumbled to herself once more, cautiously scanning the area around her to locate the source of the noise.

The gurgling sounded like it was getting closer and closer, but Anna still could not figure out the thing emitting all of these strange sounds. Was this demonic babbling supposed to be a warning of some kind? Her mind began to run through several possibilities, but before she could find the monster stalking around her, a large shadow casted itself upon Anna.

It had appeared behind her.

In that moment, she had completely forgotten about all the warnings that Bessie had given her, and turned around on reflex.

When she did that, a grotesque monster with multiple limbs made out of a purple slimy material manifested in front of her. There was several eyeballs sticking out of the violet mess of goo, which was a horrific sight to Anna, who stared directly into one of them.

A sentence rang through her head, and she regretted all of her actions in an instant.

**_“You must never look upon the faeries. If you do.... they will take away your life.”_ **

“Go, Hakujoudai!” A voice boomed through the hollow halls, with clear determination in their tone.

The two blobs of spirits sped past Anna, who was entirely frozen with panic. The pair of hakujoudais sliced through the purple monster like a knife, impaling and separating the faeries.

With that, the purple giant melted down and crumbled into small little pink creatures. Anna was saved for the second time, by the same thing as well.

“You gotta be careful with supernaturals, you know? Don’t just walk around and do exactly what gets you killed!” Hanako said as they cheerfully skipped towards Anna, who was panting like she had just done an hour of exercise.

“That.... was... terrifying.” She exhaled after every word, still traumatised at what just happened in front of her eyes.

“Really? I thought you would be used to this by now!” The apparition exclaimed as they kneeled down, getting themselves on the same level of the spooked girl.

“Yeah? Well I thought so too!” Anna shouted at the ghost, but their banter was cut short when the pink creatures began to move again.

Anna didn’t take that as a good sign, immediately rushing back behind Hanako. The ghost didn’t seem a tad bit worried though, as they walked up to the pink creatures with a friendly grin. One of the creatures jumped up onto the ghost’s palm, and Hanako presented it to Anna like it was a piece of treasure they had found.

“These little guys are called ‘mokkes’, they usually just do small and harmless tricks, but recently a rumour was spread recently which made their motives and habits change. They’re usually timid creatures, so that monster you saw was just them getting together into that form in order to attack.” Hanako explained while the mokkes all agreed in unison, some even moving their little rabbit-like ears.

“...a rumour?” Anna asked, examining the tiny mokke on Hanako’s hand, which was resting peacefully on their hand.

“The one you told me earlier today, the rumour of ‘the faeries’! Most supernaturals can’t go against the rumours and stories set around them, and they’re forced to act against their will to follow these rumours. If they disobey their rumours, they’ll eventually disappear, or in your terms, they’ll ‘die’.”

“That’s.... cruel.” She croaked out after hearing the apparition’s explanation.

The radio channel that was created recently had been growing quite popular around the school, and with the rise of gossip and rumours, the supernaturals were affected by the humans without them even knowing. They were said to be cold blooded, atrocious and dangerous beings, but it wasn’t really true.

The mokkes, one of the docile supernaturals of Kamome Academy, were now turned into the faeries. What kind of person would be so ruthless and uncaring to spread these stories?

“Anna,” Hanako pulled the girl back into reality, breaking her from her trance, “will you help me in changing their rumours?”

“Huh?” She said in shock, what could Hanako mean by that?

“As the seventh mystery of Kamome Academy, I’m in charge of supervising all the supernaturals in the school, as well as maintaining a proper relationship between us and humans. If they harm one of your kind, then I have no choice but to.... exterminate them.”

“Well, that was the case before you arrived. Now, we’ll actually have a chance to do this in a less brutal and violent fashion!” The ghost said, jumping in excitement.

“So, will you help me?”

Anna looked at the mokkes on the ground once again, and with a sudden surge of determination, she nodded.

“I have an idea for how I can change their rumours.” She had a bright grin on her face, and Hanako knew from that moment on,

she was the perfect person for this.

“Where did my phone go? I had it in my pocket while I was in class, but it suddenly disappeared!”

“Haven’t you heard? There a monster in the school that takes away your stuff, no matter how hard you keep your eyes on it!”

“Really? That’s scary!” Two students chatted while strolling to their classroom, but not before Anna came over to the pair.

“Here, keep a piece with you and the faeries won’t take your belongings anymore!” She offered a small pile of wrapped candy to the two, who took them with doubtful expressions, “will this work?”

“Of course! Go tell other people, too!”

Anna continued to spread the new rumour of the faeries, and soon, mokkes were running around the school with joy as they held a piece of candy with their bunny ears. Although none of the students could witness the little supernaturals running around, Anna knew that she had done the right thing. She saw other students carrying sweets in their pockets, and the mischievous little mokkes would grab them out of their pockets.

Well, she wasn’t the only person who saw it, but she had no idea.

Catherine spotted a few of these tiny tricksters jumping across the hall, and couldn’t help but grab this perfect opportunity.

As the supernaturals stumbled across the corridor, she jabbed her umbrella hard onto the ground in front of them, causing their parade to come to a halt. She kneeled down to face the creatures, but to the other students nearby, she was talking to thin air.

“Where is Hanako?”

The rooftop of the Kamome Academy wasn’t used as often as before. Some students would’ve stayed there at nights to stargaze, but as time flew by, these groups of students decreased. Anna used that to her own advantage, and invited her new otherworldly friend to a nice and simple hangout session on top of the school, where nobody frequented anymore.

The two laid down, basking in the daylight as they read from an incredibly generic teen magazine. That part didn’t bother them though, the both of them just chatted like a pair of normal friends, completely ignoring the fact that one of them is dead.

Flipping onto the next page, Anna worked up the courage to ask the other something she has been curious about, ever since the day they first met.

“How did you die, Hanako?”

The ghost seemed to be visibly shaken by the question. Granted, it was an odd question to ask so suddenly.

“I.... don’t think I can tell you that.”

Anna didn’t push for an answer after that, the only clue she had right now was their neck. That clue was actually pretty telling, but for someone living in modern times, it wasn’t as obvious as the ghost thought.

“Then... do you remember what your life used to be like?”

“.... I’m sorry. I can’t tell you much at the moment.” Hanako replied, adjusting their cap lower to cover their eyes.

It was certainly normal for a ghost to hide their past, but Hanako didn’t want to hide. The apparition wanted to tell her everything, but that would be too much to handle, especially for Anna, who just discovered the existence of ghosts.

Besides, if the ghost had told her everything, then she’d definitely leave them, and they didn’t want to be alone again.

Anna was important to the ghost, for some godforsaken reason, Hanako couldn’t tell them anything. At least not now.

“Are you satisfied with this life of yours, Anna?”

“What does that have to do with the questions I asked?”

“I wasn’t satisfied at all with my past life, but I had to give it up.... for something important to me.”

“Ah...” the two fell to a few moments of silence, but Anna soon answered the ghost’s query, “I wouldn’t say that I’m satisfied to the level where I can literally die right now, but I guess I am content with what I have right now.”

“That’s nice, I wish I could feel that way.” A breeze blew past the two, but the ghost held their cap tightly, preventing it from being blown away.

“Could I help? I mean... I don’t know what you wanted, or what precious thing made you give up your life, but...”

“....you can help me by staying with me, as my friend.” Hanako said with a heartfelt smile. That smile was unlike any of the ones they had before. This one felt genuine, and that was clear to Anna.

“Of course, I hope you find whatever you wanted, before you died.”

“Thank you.” The ghost responded, and the pair focused their attention back onto the magazine, but the smile Hanako had had continued to stay on their face, which made Anna feel a slight feeling of accomplishment.

Was it abnormal to say that you enjoyed the company of the deceased? To Anna, it would’ve originally been a ‘yes’, but now, her answer has changed. Time seemed to always pass by too quickly when she is with the ghost, there was a sense of familiarity with Hanako, but she didn’t know where it came from. When she first saw the ghost, she thought she had saw an old friend, but she has never seen them before, so how is that possible?

The sounds of clanking metal and a pair of feet tapping had stopped the two in their usual activities.

“Hanako of the toilet, the seventh mystery of Kamome Academy,” a person called out from the entrance of the school’s rooftop. The wind outside made their clothing flow elegantly in the air, but what stood out the most from the person was the umbrella they had been holding, which seemed to be the source of the noise of clanking metal. Shouldn’t umbrella handles be made with wood instead of metal?

“That’s me!” Hanako yelled out, standing up from their position and levitated slightly off the ground.

“Do you know her?” Anna asked while she stood up as well, brushing the dirt off of her uniform.

“Nope, I don’t have a clue!” They replied with a smirk.

“I’m sent here to expel you from the academy! Now step away from that student!” The person said as they swung their umbrella and pointed it at the pair. Even with the threat, Hanako continued to simply shrug it off.

That did not please the exorcist, so they began to launch an attack by rushing forward, bashing the umbrella onto Hanako, who blocked it by holding out their hand. However, the attacker seemed to have another trick up their sleeves, and chuckled once the ghost had made contact with the umbrella.

Waves of lightning moved from the umbrella and went onto the body of the ghost, who was immediately stunned by the sudden spell. The lighting spread all across their body, tasing and stunning every single part of their ghostly body.

The ghost fell backwards, soon finding themselves on the ground, still flinching from the waves of shock.

The exorcist didn’t waste any time, and continued their assault, jumping up and nearly landing their finishing blow onto the seventh mystery, but not before someone stopped her.

A body launched themselves in front of the defenceless ghost, blocking the exorcist from attacking any further. They came to a sudden halt, and the high pitch screech of their shoe colliding with the ground had sounded through to the entire rooftop.

“What the hell are you doing? Get out of the way! I could’ve almost killed you!” The exorcist reprimanded Anna, who didn’t move away from their spot.

“Who are you? Why are you attacking Hanako for no reason?” She kept on defending the ghost.

“I... I’m Catherine Parr, from class 3C! That ghost is lying to you! Stop getting in my way and let me exorcise them already!” Cathy accused the ghost, but Anna didn’t believe their claims.

“What do you mean? They didn’t lie to me about anything!”

“Stop defending that... thing! They killed someone in the past! They’re dangerous!”

Killed someone? Hanako murdered someone? That’s not true, right? They didn’t seem like the type to murder in cold blood at all....

Anna stumbled backwards after that sentence had hit her like a hard bat. It felt like a punch to the gut. Well, what did she expect anyways?

No, she refused to believe it. There was no way....

A pair of hands grabbed Anna from behind, and she couldn’t even begin to utter out a sentence anymore.

“Aw man.... looks like you’ve done some research, little exorcist!” Hanako said with a sinister smile as they hugged Anna, who was still trying to take all of these information in.

“No worries though, I don’t mind!” The apparition said, pulling Anna back out from the fight that had begun to unfold.

The two hakujoudais swirled around Hanako once again, but this time, not only did they summon an axe for Hanako, but a cape as well, which majestically flowed through the wind.

“You think those will scare me off? Not a chance!” Cathy roared. Then she began to charge towards the ghost, aiming their weapon towards the ghost for the second time.

Hanako grabbed the weapon and didn’t let go, to which the exorcist mocked, “you really don’t learn from your mistakes, do you?”

The umbrella emitted a wave of lightning, which soon transferred onto Hanako’s palm. However, unlike last time, the lightning didn’t flow through the ghost’s body. Instead, the lightning formed into a ball of energy, then dispersed into the air, shocking both Cathy and Anna.

“Hey, your spirit staff is pretty cool! Mind if I take it out for a spin?” Hanako said as they admired the umbrella.

“Hell no! How did you not get affected by the spell-” Cathy tried to continue, but Hanako let go of the weapon suddenly, making Cathy fall onto the ground.

“Oh, how the tables have turned!” Hanako quipped as they raised their axe, preparing for their final blow.

“Wait-” Anna yelled out in an attempt to stop Hanako, but she was too late, as their axe began dropping onto the poor exorcist, who watched as the axe approached.... slowly.... towards their neck....

A few flashes of memories sped through Cathy’s eyes, accompanying the deafening yell of a man ringing through her skull,

_“Off with her head!”_

_“That’s what you get for speaking up!”_

_“Guards, arrest her right away!”_

What the hell was appearing before her? She had no clue who that man was, by judging by their appearance, they seemed like a king from the past. She had absolutely no idea what had flashed before her eyes, but the only feeling she had left was fear. It washed over her, claiming her entire body. She couldn’t move, but the axe never landed onto their neck.

“Hanako!” Anna yelled out in a moment of sheer desperation, hoping the ghost would spare the exorcist, who was still trembling on the floor.

Cathy stayed in that position, as she watched two guards walk up to her, a flick to her forehead had brought her back into reality.

“What.....was....that..?” She uttered out, but the other two had no idea what she was referring to.

Anna looked over to Hanako and shot them a confused expression, but the ghost simply shrugged it off, “probably just visions caused by fear. I don’t know what she’s on about.”

The ghost then proceeded to loosen the exorcist’s palm, which were grasped onto the spirit staff. Hanako examined Cathy’s hand, which were covered with bruises and scars.

“Looks like you don’t have full control over that staff either, that’s how you got these?” The apparition asked, gesturing to the marks, to which Cathy nodded. The others were stunned by how cooperative she was, but Hanako wasted no time. They reached for the staff, and stuck a seal that was exactly the same as the one on their cheek onto the top of the staff.

“Wha...what the hell did you do?! That staff was passed on to generations of exorcist from a legendary clan! Get that off right now!” Cathy jumped back up and yanked the staff back into her possession, but no matter how hard she scratched at the sides of the seal, it didn’t come off and showed no signs of coming off as well.

“It was too powerful for you to handle! You even confirmed that! I’m just helping you out by limiting it’s output!” Hanako quickly defended themselves, “who sent you to hunt me down anyways? Some lame exorcist who didn’t want to come face me themselves?”

“They aren’t what you described them to be at all! I’ll have you know that they’re the student council president, of course they had to send me instead! They already have a massive workload-”

“Catherine....? The student council president is an exorcist too?!” Anna interrupted Cathy’s yelling, “are you serious? Catherine of Aragon?!”

“Yeah...? Why are you so surprised?” Cathy asked as she kept on finding ways to remove the seal, but to no avail.

“Of course! I just learnt that there are actually ghosts in the school, and now you’re telling me that not only you, but the student council president too are exorcists?!”

“Well, guess everything is settled now.” Hanako announced, then turned to Cathy, “I look forward to seeing how you plan on exorcising me, Cathy!”

After that, the two hakujoudais spun around Hanako, hiding the cape and axe Hanako had. The ghost then headed towards the exit of the roof, but not before a shout from their assistant stopped them.

“Wait!” Anna had yelled, running up to the ghost, “is it... true? Did you kill someone?”

“Yes. I did. Sorry for not telling you-”

“Is there anything else you’re keeping secret? Are you going to hide even more from me? Why?”

“I...” the ghost trailed off, lowering their cap as they turned to face Anna, “I’m afraid of what would happen if I told you about everything.”

The ghost kept a bittersweet smile on their face as they walked away from the scene, “I promise I’ll tell you, just.... not now.”

The figure kept on watching as the three interacted. They had a twisted grin plastered on their face as they watched the ghost walk away. Soon after the ghost had left, the figure had stopped watching as well.

They ran their fingers through the edge of a cabinet, then stopped once they’ve reached their destination.

Two black orbs carried a radio to the person out of the pitch black void, and the person called out, with their voice echoing through to each tiny little crevice of the void,

“It’s time, get everything ready.” They sent a message through the radio, the wicked grin still apparent on their face, “I hope she’ll be happy to see me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading, I hope you liked that chapter! If anyone is wondering if I’ll continue Reverie in the dark (which I think nobody is wondering about that), I will! Hopefully I’ll be able to keep these two fics running :D


	3. The 4PM Bookstacks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Anna explores the fifth mystery of Kamome Academy in order to obtain closure to some of her doubts, but she leaves with more questions instead of answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy crap I’m so proud of myself for almost reaching 10k words with this :’D, but it got so long that I might’ve missed some typos/errors, so I apologise in advance if I accidentally left some!

After the exorcist’s first attempt at trying to defeat the seventh mystery of the school, she’s been visiting the duo more and more often.

Cathy usually runs up to the two with no warning, then proceeds to attack Hanako. This routine soon became the norm for the two. Anna would watch the entrance of the rooftop while chatting away with Hanako, and once the door swings open, she would excuse herself from the battle. Well, until the exorcist tires herself to the point where she has to rest, that is.

Anna didn’t mind the exorcist’s appearance. Although she interrupted most of her conversations with the ghost, she had to admit that seeing the two duke it out everyday was a very enticing event to witness everyday. The two danced away, with Cathy swinging her staff in a couple of predetermined sets and Hanako swiftly dodging them. If Cathy managed to land a hit on Hanako, then it could be compared to seeing a solar eclipse, since it didn’t happen very often.

Before Cathy arrives, Anna would try to engage in different types to exchanges. Don’t get her wrong, she was still shocked about the whole “Hanako killed someone” fiasco, but there was no point in trying to pursue an answer now. After all, the ghost had already promised to reveal everything when they were ready.

Well.... that was her original mindset anyways. Whenever she began to interact with the ghost, there was this strange feeling that always irked her. There was this peculiar sensation at the back of her mind, and no matter how hard she tried, it never went away. The thirst for knowledge. That curiosity of hers always found itself rising back up whenever the ghost was by her side.

All she knew at the moment was that Hanako had murdered someone before, their death may have involved their neck, and that Hanako knew more about Anna than the apparition had led on.

There wasn’t much she could do to satisfy her curiosity. Asking the ghost themselves was not an option, reading the books surrounding the seventh mystery wasn’t a viable choice, since most of them got even the basic characteristics of Hanako wrong. She has tried asking Cathy, since she knew more about the ghost than the rumour. However, Cathy couldn’t provide much as well. Anna was at a dead end. There was nothing more she could possibly do to know more about the apparition.

That was the case, until the answer she was searching for came knocking on the door to her classroom.

“Anna? Someone said they’re looking for you. By the looks of it, I think they’re a grade ahead of us?” Maggie approached Anna, who was reading one of their many textbooks in order to kill time.

It was a pleasant surprise to the girl, since she didn’t expect someone to be looking for her.

Her surprise multiplied tenfold when the person waiting for her on the other side of that door was someone she had only talked to once.

The student who stood before her wore a dark-coloured blazer over a button-up shirt and dress. There was a green ribbon tied on their shirt, forming a neat bow around their collar. One of the most notable features of the student would be their silky blonde hair flowing down, which Anna used to identify the person in front of her.

“....Jane?” Anna found the girl who once assisted her inside the school’s art room standing right in front of her, with a sketchbook held firmly by her side. The girl wore a warm smile as she walked up to Anna, whispering something into the latter’s ear.

“Could we talk? Not here, of course. I know a more.... secluded area.”

The secluded area that Jane mentioned was an outdoor seating area with benches and overhead trellis. True to her word, there was no one there other than the two.

The blonde took a seat at one of the several benches, then proceeded to pat the space next to her, gesturing for Anna to sit down.

“Why did you want to talk to me? If it’s about that time at the art room, then I-” Anna immediately began questioning the other as she sat down, but she was abruptly interrupted by Jane, who promptly announced their reasons behind inviting Anna out.

“It must be hard for you to work for a ghost, yes? I see that you’ve been cleaning the bathrooms ever since that day, so it’s not that hard to figure out what happened.” Jane declared, peering down the sketchbook laid down on her lap, examining the drawings inside.

“W-what? ....I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Anna sputtered out in a panic.

Even though her actions has been quite abnormal recently, there was no way a mere art student could figure out Anna’s companionship with a ghost. That thought lingered inside Anna’s mind, still doubting the other’s declaration.

“You’re a terrible liar, Anna.” Jane replied with a smug smirk, “you’ve also been acquainted with that exorcist.... I believe their name is Catherine Parr?”

A beat passed by, Anna was utterly stunned by Jane’s knowledge of her secrets. The air suddenly felt tense, and she could feel her collar tightening around her neck as the silence stretched on.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone else about this,” Jane assured the other, who was still staring at Jane with an intense look, “but aren’t you interested in knowing more about the seventh mystery?”

“....what are you suggesting? I’ve tried searching them up, I’ve tried asking Cathy, I even tried reading! None of them could’ve told me what I wanted to know.” Anna ranted out, sighing in frustration after she finished.

“Well.... perhaps a hint will help guide you in the right direction.” Jane pulled out her phone, then pressed the “play” button on it. Soon after, a familiar voice welcomed its audience.

“The fifth mystery of Kamome Academy, the 4PM Bookstacks. This mystery contains the records of every student in the school, with information stretching from the past to even the future. There are three types of books found in this area, the white, black and red books. White books are for the living, black books are for the deceased...... as for the red books, you should never read them, or you’ll be torn apart by the mystery.”

The radio channel then stopped with a click.

“You.... want me to go look for Hanako’s book?”

“Precisely. Every book inside has the name of the person written on the cover, and that book would contain records of everything they’ve done in this life.” Jane answered Anna, who tilted her head after their reply.

“How would I be able to find their book, or even the mystery?”

“Head to the library at 4pm sharp. You’ll be guided to the fifth mystery after that.” Jane answered once again, but in the middle of her explanation, she reached into her pocket, then grabbed a black paper crane out, “this is a little gift I’ve made for you. I can’t help but notice your interest in the piece, so I thought I should fold something for you.”

Jane placed the crane onto Anna’s palm, who scanned the piece instantly, raising the crane to the level of their eyes.

“Bring Catherine with you when you visit, I’m sure she’ll want to join you.” Jane reminded Anna, then stood up with the sketchbook still in her grasp. Before she left the scene, she made sure to leave another hint for Anna,

“Find Katherine Howard’s book, and you’ll find everything you’ve been dying to know.”

“Do you really believe her? I mean... you don’t even know how she got that information! Maybe she’s lying, Anna!” Cathy warned her as the two stepped into the school’s library. There were rows among rows of books all lined up on the shelves. By the little amount of gaps between the books, it was safe to assume that not many were borrowed.

“Is there a reason for us to not trust her? She knows about Hanako! Maybe even more than both of us combined!” Anna argued, spinning around to face the exorcist, “I say we take a leap of faith and try it! We know what we should and shouldn’t do inside the mystery! We’ll be fine!”

“....are you really sure about this?” Cathy sighed out with one of her arms clutching onto her disguised staff.

“Hey, if something really tries to attack us in there, I’m sure you’ll protect me.” Anna said as she scanned the books, “I trust your abilities as an exorcist! You’ve almost defeated Hanako once!”

“...thanks, no one has ever said that to me before...” Cathy mumbled out, but luckily Anna was close enough to hearing.

“Don’t you know the student council president? Don’t they ever talk to you about these sorts of stuff?” She questioned Cathy, who just glanced at the ground in silence.

“Our relationship is a bit complicated, but no, she doesn’t say those kinds of things often.”

“I see... so do you know how we can enter the fifth mystery’s..... place?” Anna asked as the two observed the area.

“It’s called a boundary. We’re going to the fifth mystery’s boundary, the place they have full control over. We can’t defeat the mystery inside their boundary, so we should make sure we’re absolutely safe before entering.” Cathy explained, carefully picking out some of the books in the process to inspect them, “luckily, we can’t die inside a boundary. No life can be created or destroyed inside these places, but there are... some fates that are worse than death.”

“You seem to know much about this,” Anna tried to get more information out of the exorcist, “what else do you know about... these supernaturals?”

“Well... I wouldn’t say I know much, but I do know that these boundaries connect the near shore to the far shore. To put it simply, the near shore is the land of the living, where we humans reside. The far shore is the world of the dead. The mysteries and supernaturals from the far shore exist here on the near shore through rumours or their powers, but we can access the far shore through some of the boundaries if we wish.”

“All of the mysteries are from the far shore?”

“Not exactly. I’ve heard from the president that they can also hide as students, so we can’t trust a lot of people here...”

Cathy trailed off, but once Anna spotted someone entering the library, she softly elbowed the other, leading her to stop her explanation.

The person entering the room had the same uniform as Anna, they seemed to be pushing a cart full of different books. As they entered, Anna couldn’t help but announce the pair’s present, as well as try to ward off any suspicions that the person could’ve had as they entered. After all, Anna knew this person.

“Ah, Maggie! Are you here to help out again?” She said as she approached the student, who began piling the stacks of books onto a nearby table.

“Oh, Anna! Yeah, I’m just here to drop off some books, what’re you doing here? Didn’t think you’d be interested in visiting me!” Maggie asked with a welcoming grin, but after she noticed that they weren’t the only ones there, she pointed towards Cathy, who was trying to avoid their detection, “who’s that with you? I didn’t know you had a friend in a lower grade?”

“Oh! Um... we’re just here to look for a book, you can call her Cathy!” Anna responded as Cathy was attempting to exit the scene subtly, but to no avail.

The two continued to chat, but Cathy kept her eyes on the grand clock inside the library. There were a few minutes left before it reached 4 o’clock, but by the looks of it, Maggie didn’t seem like she was leaving anytime soon. She shot a look over at Anna, who had the same concern on her mind. However, she still proceeded to continue the conversation, hoping that her classmate would leave before the clock struck four.

In the middle of their conversation, Cathy had pulled out a random book in one of the rows, settling herself down on a char nearby, she began flipping through the pages, in hopes that it will help her in this awkward situation.

Some thoughts had always plagued her mind, but they’ve gotten better since her first encounter with Hanako.

She still doesn’t understand why Anna was so friendly towards the ghost though. Cathy thought if someone else that wasn’t an exorcist saw a ghost, they would freak out and be traumatised. However, Anna didn’t do any of that, at least not in front of her.

She always found Anna and Hanako to be chatting away when she bursts into the rooftop. The two would occasionally lean on the railing of the roof, with their heads perched on their arm. Cathy would wonder why the two got along.

Another thought of hers wasn’t as pleasant as that one.

The mystery behind how Anna could’ve seen the ghost was one that intrigued her as well. She couldn’t tell anyone else about these thoughts, not Anna, not Catherine, and certainly not Hanako.

She left out a crucial detail in her explanation of the near and far shores. One regarding how supernaturals are seen, or more specifically, how they can’t be seen by an ordinary human.

Cathy was able to see supernaturals through her relations with being an exorcist, but Anna definitely did not fit this type of people.

There was another part to this mystery, that part being the individual who informed Anna of the fifth mystery. Anna only said that the person’s name was “Jane”. How did this person manage to piece together their secret? Does Jane have the ability to see supernaturals too?

This web of questions only seemed to expand more as time went on, with the addition of this person, her theories had to be redone.

She furrowed her brows as she stared at the page. None of this made sense, and she had no choice but to go with the flow. It seems like the answers will come eventually.

The hands of the clock clicked down, it was reaching the four mark sooner and sooner. Anna’s nerves was starting to get the better of her, she couldn’t just push Maggie away, but this was her chance at unlocking the secrets of Hanako. Everything the ghost had been hiding was within her grasp, she can’t just throw away her shot like this.

Cathy peeked past the two and watched as the clock crept closer towards 4 o’clock.

30 seconds left.

“Your friend isn’t very talkative, huh?” Maggie pointed out, which made Cathy bury her head closer into the book she was holding.

“It takes some time for her to open up.” Anna replied as she handed Maggie another book from the stack.

“Thanks for helping me, I know library work isn’t exactly that exciting, but it’s nice to have some time to yourself. Not much people visit, so I get some time to... reflect, I suppose.”

Anna checked the time again as Maggie thanked her.

15 seconds left.

“It’s no big deal. I see you coming here a lot, figured I should help a friend out sometimes.”

“I welcome you to come again! Bring your friend, I don’t really mind...” Maggie exclaimed, then turned around to face the clock.

There was five seconds left before the clock struck four, and just as Anna was about to give up, Maggie told the two something that instantly brought their spirits back up,

“I should go, there are some more books in the storeroom that I have to organise.” Maggie said, twisting back around to wave the two goodbye, “come visit again! I’d love to have company while I work.”

Maggie pushed the cart that originally carried a pile of books back into the storage room of the library, then shut the door behind her, leaving the two there.

A sigh of relief left Anna’s mouth, and Cathy stood back up as the two watched the clock’s hand strike four.

“That was close...” Anna exhaled, but was returned with nothing but silence.

Cathy’s gaze was fixated on a green butterfly flying across the library.

“Is... that supposed to be normal?” Anna asked after she had noticed the butterfly flying alone inside the library as well.

“Not at all.” Cathy deadpanned, and immediately leapt off of her spot on the ground, thrusting her body towards the butterfly, which was flapping past the bookshelves, “but it’s just what we’re looking for.”

The two chased the butterfly, which gently landed onto one of the thousands of books in the library. Both of them watched as the butterfly continue to lay onto the spine of the book.

“Should we pull the book out?” Anna asked the exorcist, who was equally as confused as the person next to her.

“I know nothing about this mystery,” Cathy scoffed, leaning onto her umbrella with both arms crossed, “do what you think will get us inside.”

Anna sighed at Cathy’s valueless input, then proceeded to hover her hand onto the book. She hesitated for a moment before she pulled the book out, causing the butterfly to escape through the gradually closing space between Anna’s palm and the book.

The action reminded her of her first meeting with Hanako.

She remembered being anxious about summoning the ghost, but her stubbornness soon made her gave it a try.

Who knew things would turn out this way? Here she was, with an exorcist by her side, both of them about to enter the supposed boundary of the fifth mystery to uncover the secrets behind Hanako.

She wrapped her fingers onto the spine of the book, and carefully pulled it out.

“What’s the book about?” Cathy asked, glancing at the item in Anna’s hand.

Anna flipped through the pages, but to the two’s surprise, the entire book was blank. The cover of the book consisted of a golden butterfly in the midst of a dark green background. Apart from that detail, the book had nothing else to note.

“How anticlimactic.” Anna sighed as she closed the book. The exorcist next to her sighed as well, but it was in relief instead of in disappointment.

“Let’s just assume that Jane was messing with you and go back home, it’s getting late.” Cathy took the chance to dismiss herself, but as she began trudging away from the bookshelf, a sharp creak had stopped the two in their attempt of leaving the library.

The bookshelf that the both had been standing in front of had began to slide backwards, revealing a couple of old scratch marks caused by the bookshelf opening. The shelf continued to move backwards, until a few more creaks and vibrations later. The shelf spun like a door, revealing a dark corridor.

“So...” Anna smirked at the exorcist, “I guess we’re not being tricked?”

The two stepped into the hallway with newfound confidence, but there was no light source apart from the light seeping in from the original library. As they began exploring the corridor, the bookshelf that revealed the entrance had began moving once again. The rumbling and creaks of it caught the attention of the two, who both spun back to witness the bookshelf closing, taking away their only light source.

Cathy rushed back towards the closing bookshelf, but it sealed off the exit as soon as she got there. She cursed the door under her breath, then began pulling on the shelf. However, nothing seemed to aid her in opening the door.

“Dammit!” She shouted as she kicked the door in an attempt to get it to open.

The two were surrounded by the darkness of the area. Except for that, the only thing they could identify the place with was the smell of musty books. The exorcist was too busy with the entrance to notice, but the green butterfly had appeared upon Anna once again. She watched as the insect provided a weak source of illumination to herself. There was an aura of warmth around the butterfly, almost as if the insect was supposed to be guiding the two again.

The creature flapped its wings until it halted onto an object hanging off of the ceiling. The light radiating off the butterfly highlighted the outline of the object, which appeared to be an unlit lantern.

It crawled into the lantern, then rested its tiny body onto the candle inside. A spark erupted from the insect, and as the green butterfly grew brighter, the lanterns around the corridor had begun to light up as well. Like a stack of dominoes, the candles lit up one after another, until the sparks reached the end of the corridor.

Cathy turned around in shock at the sight, “what did you do?”

“I don’t know, but at least we can see now?” Anna answered, then walked up to the lantern that had been lit up first.

“Maybe it was trying to help us?”

Cathy scanned the area, which consisted of even more bookshelves than the ones in the library outside. Inside each of the shelves, there were books with a person’s name written on it. At first glance, there were only black and white books. The rumoured red books were nowhere to be found.

“Off to find that book, I guess.” Cathy sighed, stepping in front of the first bookshelf in sight.

“It should be a black one,” Anna notified the other, “if Jane’s right about this, then the student’s name should be Katherine Howard.”

“....do you think this ‘Katherine Howard’ is Hanako?” Cathy asked while she searched the bookshelf.

“...maybe? Or this person could be someone close to Hanako! Their name would explain the choker Hanako wears, so I’m sure they know Hanako.”

“....could Katherine be the person Hanako killed?” Cathy questioned, “supernaturals are merciless, Hanako could’ve killed this person then wore their choker as-”

“I don’t think Hanako would do something like that.”

“Why are you so sure about this? You’ve known them for less than a month and you know that they’ve killed someone. Why do you still trust them?”

Anna paused in the process of look for the book to think about Cathy’s query. She placed her palm onto the edge of the bookshelf, then stared at the row in front of her as she began to ponder. She didn’t want to accept the fact that supernaturals are dangerous. It wasn’t their fault for being hostile, and she would know after the faeries incident.

She knew that they were being forced to follow the wicked rumours spread about them. There was no use in defying the rumours, or they’d perish from the near shore. Maybe Hanako was the same?

Maybe Hanako had no choice but to kill someone. Maybe the true culprit was the one who spread those rumours to begin with. Maybe Hanako was innocent.

Cathy continued her search in silence as Anna theorised Hanako’s intentions. She would occasionally glance at the other student to make sure she was doing alright, but Cathy would get no reply from the other as they continued their musings.

“I trust them. Hanako has defended me more than once, they really aren’t as bad as you think.”

“....let’s just find that book and get out of here.” Cathy mumbled after Anna had given her answer, but a spark of inspiration had suddenly hit Anna after that sentence.

“Don’t you mean....” Anna began with a smirk spread wide across her face, “we book it out of here?”

“That was a terrible pun,” Cathy sighed after Anna had delivered her punchline.

In the midst of their search, a familiar sound had reached Cathy’s ears. Anna was too far away to hear it, but the noise of wings flaps away had began to approach the exorcist. Unlike the butterfly that had guided the two into the 4PM Bookstacks, the one that appeared before her was blue instead of green. The insect swirled around her, and her gaze had followed the butterfly.

There was a sudden urge in her mind to trail the blue butterfly. It was like the creature was calling out to her, beckoning the exorcist to pursue it.

Her feet moved before she could even begin to comprehend what was happening, she chased the insect through several rows of shelves, passing by a number of black and white books before reaching the butterfly’s destination. Like the green butterfly from before, it landed onto a book. A white book to be exact.

The words on the spine of the book was Cathy’s own name, she reached out to grab the book, but as the butterfly flew away, something else grabbed her attention.

There was a black book next to her book.

The name written on it was her own name as well.

She stopped in the middle of taking out the white book to stare at the black one. She didn’t know that there was a student who had the same name as her, so she was slightly stunned by the sight. The colour of the book meant that the student is deceased, so that must mean they’re either a student from a long time ago, or they were just unfortunate.

There’s no way that black book could be hers. Ignoring the fact that she was physically holding her own white book, meaning she already had a record of her own, she isn’t dead. She hasn’t died, so that black book must be someone else’s. What other explanation could there be?

It’s just a coincidence. It must be.

Still, she couldn’t resist the temptation that fell upon her. She pulled the white book out, along with the black one.

Out of sheer curiosity, she began with the black book first. She had to confirm that the book didn’t belong to her after all.

She expected the records inside to be of an ordinary student’s, maybe the record would be cut short by some accident that the student suffered. There were many possibilities, but that was the one that Cathy thought was more likely to be the case. It would probably be about a student’s past, nothing inside should shock her.

That was not the case at all.

As she read through each line, she could point out exactly what’s wrong with the book.

The records this book contained was not about a student, and they weren’t even about someone from modern times.

The words inside described the life of someone from 500 years ago. Not just an ordinary person either, but the sixth wife of Henry VIII, Catherine Parr. The famed survivor out of the six wives.

Nothing inside the book talked about a student, so why would it be inside the 4PM Bookstacks?

“Hey Cathy! Come over here! I think I’ve found it!”

The shouting came from a few rows behind Cathy, which broke her out of her train of thought. She closed the book, still puzzled about the contents inside. She stood there still focused on the two books, but after a few more seconds, she grabbed both books and her umbrella, then set out to find Anna.

“Oh hey! Look up! Katherine’s book is up there, but I need to climb a ladder to reach it, so could you help me out?” Anna greeted the other, pointing upwards to the top of the shelf.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” Cathy replied, putting her belongings onto the ground, to which Anna watched in slight bewilderment, “what’re those books for?”

“One of those butterflies guided me to my own book,” she answered, “but there’s another book with my name on it, so I wanted to read it to see who it belonged to.”

“Shouldn’t the owner be dead?” Anna queried, pointing out the colour of the book, “maybe it’s just a student who has the same name as you-”

“The book doesn’t belong to a student.” Cathy interrupted Anna, then flipped open the book once more to show the other the contents of the book.

“That’s... weird. Why would a dead queen from 500 years ago be in here? I thought this place only had the records of students of this school?”

“That’s what I thought, but this book seems to be the exception.” Cathy placed the book back onto the ground.

“I don’t think that’s the only one.” Anna countered, then pointed upwards again, “I thought I just misread the books up there, but there’s two books with the same person’s name on it as well.” Cathy looked up to find the location Anna was pointing at, then her eyes landed on two identical black books.

“Katherine Howard.” She read the name written on both books out loud, which made Anna nod in agreement.

“If what we’ve read in that book of yours is somehow connected to this person’s books, then.... one of those books would belong to someone from 500 years ago.”

“Not just anyone from 500 years ago,” Cathy recalled a detail from the black book, “the fifth queen of Henry VIII, the one who was beheaded.”

“Would that explain the choker and the blood on Hanako’s neck?”

“...it would.”

“So.... this person,” Anna referred to the two black books once again, “they’re Hanako’s true identity.”

The two gawked the the two black books in disbelief. They managed to learn something about Hanako, but now there’s a bigger mystery afoot.

“Let’s read your book, the white one.” Anna told the other, who followed her instructions and opened up the white book in her hands.

The content inside was what they expected. There were details of Cathy’s life, including some of her personal thoughts, which she tried using a hand to block out. Anna giggled at her futile attempt at trying to prevent herself from being embarrassed, but as they continued through the book, their giggles had dispersed. They reached the page where it described the two entering the fifth mystery’s boundary, but everything after that was hidden behind a red page, with large black letters that said “future”.

“This is as far as we can go.” Cathy grumbled, the page next to the red one had been about the black book, but nothing inside was new information to them.

“I guess we’ll just have to read Katherine’s book to know more.” Anna noted, already walking up to the ladder she placed in front of the bookshelf.

Cathy moved up to the ladder as well, holding it tightly as Anna began climbing it. After a few cautious steps, she reached the two books. Anna wasted no time in grabbing both out at the same time, laying them out in front of her. The only difference between the two books were the width of them, one was clearly thicker than the other, but everything else about both books were the same.

She flipped open the thinner book first, which contained the records of the person Cathy mentioned. The fifth queen who had been executed.

Among the pages, Anna found a certain character inside to be eerily familiar. The name of this person had caught her attention, since she had the same name. According to the records, this Anna was the fourth queen of Henry VIII, the one who was divorced.

She skimmed through the rest of the book quickly, and the book came to a close with the details of Katherine’s execution.

Anna had a small urge to lash out, to rage after what she had read. She couldn’t stand reading about the poor girl, how her life was forcibly taken away from her by those men. Her breathing became more erratic as the storm inside her began brewing, but before she could do anything, she was pulled back by a voice.

“Anything interesting in that one?” Cathy called out from below, to which Anna answered, “well... their death and my name certainly wasn’t what I expected.”

“Your name?”

“Yeah, there was a part about the fourth queen and Katherine’s time as a lady in waiting. Apparently the fourth queen had the same name as me.”

“Don’t you find it weird that both of our names have something to do with this? The duplicate books are already strange enough, but now we’re mentioned as queens from the past?”

“It’s probably just chance,” Anna brushed off Cathy’s remark, then turned to examine the other book.

The other book contained the records of a student.

From the first couple of pages, there were already a couple of things that stood out to Anna.

Katherine Howard’s parents are unknown, the only people related to her that are mentioned in the book are her cousins, which were Anne Boleyn and.....

Jane Seymour.

“....Jane?” Anna said for the second time today, which made Cathy perk up, “what’s up with Jane?”

“She’s.... related to Katherine Howard. She’s her cousin.”

“Ah....” Cathy gasped, still maintaining a firm grasp on the ladder, “so that’s why she knows her....”

“She has another cousin, Anne Boleyn.”

“I’ve never heard of her, we’ll deal with it later, I suppose.”

Another thing that caught her eyes immediately was another familiar name inside the book.

Maggie. Her name is in the book as well. It’s said that they knew each other, but Maggie has never mentioned knowing her before, so how is that possible?

As soon as her eyes landed on that specific name, something began happening to the book. A red liquid had began to seep into the book, eventually turning all of the pages red, including the cover of the book. Anna stared at that name in shock, not even reacting to the book turning red. However, the liquid soon dripped down, falling from the book and onto the person below.

“...blood?” Cathy watched as the liquid pour down. She yelled to the student above her, who was still trying to process all the information laid out in front of her very eyes.

“Anna! Close that book right now!” She shouted in a panic, almost shaking the person off of the ladder in a moment of desperation.

She finally snapped out of her trance once the shouting reached her, she looked down to find blood covering the entire page, then slammed it shut as soon as she realised what was happening. She hurried down the ladder, and a few violent shakes had began to throw the two off balance. The lanterns around them had all began to turn red, and swarms of butterflies had started merging into each other, creating a humanoid shape.

“Get back!” Cathy pulled Anna away from the monster, then clutched onto her staff.

She took off the umbrella disguise, revealing the spirit staff she had been carrying all this time, then proceeded to lunge towards the giant creature to attack. A bolt of spirit lightning had formed around the staff, which she used to strike the creature in its chest, creating a hole. Still, the power of the staff wasn’t enough to defeat the monster, and more butterflies had began flying back into the creature to refill the gap left by the exorcist.

“Shit!” She gruntled after jumping backwards to avoid being attacked.

The monster began to swing their fist at the two, but as their hand came closer and closer to the duo, a sharp and decisive cut was made across the creature’s neck, successfully making the butterflies disperse.

“You two really left me alone and thought I wouldn’t notice? Let me join the fun!” The voice of a familiar apparition echoed through the corridor, which made a wide smile appear on Anna’s face.

The butterflies flew back into the darkness of the corridor, revealing the seventh mystery of Kamome Academy, now known as Katherine Howard. Two white spirits accompanied her in her fabulous entrance, but her moment of glory was swiftly interrupted when she noticed the four books on the ground.

“Oh, so you two were snooping around! What a mess you’ve made here!” She crouched down to see the books closer, but once she saw her own name, a small frown had formed on her face.

“I see you two have.... found my book.” She sighed, picking up the black and red books.

“You.... you’re Katherine Howard? I... I can call you that, right?” Anna walked up to the ghost, who returned her query with a small smile, “I guess, there’s really no use in calling me Hanako anymore.”

“Explain. Now.” Cathy didn’t thank the ghost for rescuing them, but instantly began interrogating her instead. She pointed at the books in Katherine’s hand, as well as the ones on the ground.

“I’d rather not.” Katherine quipped, which annoyed the exorcist. However, before the three could proceed with their questioning, another voice had announced their presence, gaining all of their attention.

“You three just came in here and made my place into a complete disaster! At least inform me about coming here first!”

Anna spun around, and found someone she knows all too well standing right in front of her.

“Ah, no.5! It’s nice seeing you again!” Katherine greeted the individual, who grabbed a random book and smacked the ghost right on their head, “you dumbass! What did you do to my library?”

“....Maggie...?” Anna trailed off at the sight of the fifth mystery. Cathy was handling the situation slightly better than Anna, since she didn’t know the student well. In addition, she knew that mysteries could be students, so that part didn’t stun her as much.

“I didn’t really think you two would be able to come here, but it looks like I miscalculated...” Maggie admitted, placing the book back into its original spot.

“You’re....”

“Yes. I’m the curator of the 4PM Bookstacks, the fifth mystery of the academy. Why’d you think I volunteer at the library in the first place?” Maggie claimed, but Anna was still speechless at the sudden reveal.

“Oh, Maggie is a great friend of mine!” Katherine asserted with a bright smirk.

“Speaking of which,” Maggie turned to face the ghost, “please stop messing with Anna in the middle of class, it’s really distracting.”

“Nope! It’s fun!” Katherine smirked, which didn’t seem all that amusing to the other three.

After that small exchange, Maggie began to collect the books that had been taken out, but as she reached for Cathy’s books, a shout made her halt in her collection.

“Why do I have two books? Why does the black book have the records to a queen?” Cathy questioned the mystery, who turned to look at Katherine.

Katherine looked away, avoiding her gaze.

“I can’t tell you. It’s not something I can say.” Maggie explained, grabbing the two books on the ground after her explanation.

“You two have been keeping so many secrets from me, why can’t you just tell us what’s going on?” Anna snapped back at her reply. Cathy didn’t add any more input to the conversation, and opted to watched instead. It wasn’t her place to judge, but she still had to know why she’s involved in this whole web of mess.

“It’s dangerous for you to know,” Maggie answered.

“I’ll tell you when the time is right, please just bear with us for now.” Katherine replied as well, taking off her hat to show her sincerity.

“I...” Anna sighed, but in the end, she gave up and simply gave the two a nod.

“Thank you, Anna.” Katherine spoke up with a warm smile, but after that interaction, she swirled back to face the fifth mystery, “now then, I actually have something to talk to you about!”

“What?” Maggie jeered, placing the books to the side as she listened to Katherine.

“There’s a huge problem spreading around the academy, and I fear that it’ll soon reach us seven mysteries.” Katherine began, “I’m sure you’re familiar with that radio channel that every student has been listening to, and you should understand how those rumours are affecting us, yes?”

“I know the details of the faeries incident, and I believe I know where you’re going with this.”

“Good!” Katherine jested, then proceeded with her request, “then will you allow us to take your yorishiro?”

“What?”

That exclamation came from Cathy, who was shocked at Katherine’s request, even more than the fifth mystery herself.

“What’s a yorishiro?” Anna joined in the chatter, being the only one who didn’t know what they were talking about wasn’t something she’d like to be, so she instantly asked for an explanation.

“Great question!” Katherine jumped in excitement, “a yorishiro would be the most precious possession of a mystery! It acts as the energy source of a boundary, so if it is destroyed, then the boundary would collapse and the mystery who once ruled over that space would lose their control of their boundary until a new rumour is established!”

“That’s the basic explanation,” Maggie inputted, then answered Katherine’s original question, “and yes, if you think it is necessary, then do what you must, but I’m still a little pissed about what you three have done, so...”

“I want to hear a secret in exchange for the yorishiro. I don’t care from who, as long as it’s something I don’t know, then I’ll accept it.”

“You can’t be serious.” Anna snarled, but the silence that followed after proved that Maggie was indeed serious about the request.

“Don’t you know everything about us? You have records of everyone! There shouldn’t be any secret of ours that you don’t know!”

Anna and Cathy started to debate the fifth mystery, denying their request without providing any secrets to the curator. While they were having their great debate, Katherine watched from the sidelines, thinking about the fifth mystery’s request. She stood back onto the ground, stopping her usual floating temporarily to walk towards the scene of the argument. Pulling the two students away from the curator, she spoke up to Maggie, “I’ll tell you a secret. Sorry for ruining the library.”

“You’re not the one who did it though?” Maggie questioned the ghost’s motive, but the look Katherine gave her had convinced her enough to hear the apparition out, “spit it out, I’m sure I know what it is.”

“I.....”

The two behind her had leaned in with immense focus, they were sure that what the ghost said next would help them unravel the mystery behind the duplicate books, and they stared hard at Katherine, as if their lives depended on whether or not they heard this secret clearly. The pink ghost had glanced downward, focusing more on their ground as they muttered out their reply.

“I like bagels.” The ghost said as they kept on staring at the ground with their head down, which Maggie took as a sign of embarrassment. A short chuckle was elicited by the fifth mystery, but the pair behind them had a much more bigger reaction than her.

“How the hell is that a secret?!” Cathy hissed at the ghost.

“I thought you were about to say something that’d shock us!” Anna yelled out, running up to the two without hesitation to berate the apparition.

“That’s enough,” Maggie cleared her throat to stop the two from bullying the ghost, “that was unexpected, I’ll at least give you that.”

“What do you mean? You said you wanted to hear a secret!” Maggie ignored the complaint, then walked over to a light switch, “I can’t believe you three can’t even take a simple prank.” She mumbled out, which caused the three to widen their eyes in surprise.... or with murderous intent, if you’re Katherine or Cathy.

The fifth mystery then pulled on the light switch, with a thundering rumble, a tunnel opened up behind her.

“I’m only letting Anna come though.” She notified the three, who all glanced at each other in response to the statement. After a beat passed by, Katherine simply pushed Anna towards Maggie, but not before shooting the fellow mystery another glare.

“Why did you let her take Anna?” Cathy asked the apparition, who was waiting in the hallway with her. The ghost responded with a pretty logical and sensible answer, which somehow satisfied the exorcist, “Maggie is still Anna’s friend, I don’t think she’ll bring her any harm.”

A few minutes of silence washed over the two. They patiently waited for their friend’s return, but something was still bothering Cathy. She was still aching to know the truth behind those books. That thought irked her repeatedly, and with a huff, she struck up a conversation with the ghost again.

“Tell me what those books meant.”

“Will you just give up about it? Ignorance is bliss, so quit it with the interrogation.”

“I won’t stop until I know exactly what’s going on. I expected answers when I came in here, and I don’t intend on leaving until I get it.”

“You’ll regret it.”

“Then so be it, I want to hear it.” Cathy informed the ghost with a set of determined eyes, which annoyed the mystery even more.

Several options presented themselves before the ghost, but she just sighed as her brain began to whirl with thoughts. Katherine didn’t get why the two wanted to know about this so much, but there weren’t really any good routes she could take with this. Well, she knew exactly why there were two books for Cathy.

There were two books for Anna as well.

There were exactly ten people who had duplicate books, which included Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Anna of Cleves, Katherine Howard and Catherine Parr.

The truth behind why becomes much more clearer when you know the full list.

Actually, only knowing those six was enough to formulate the reason.

It isn’t hard to do a bit of research, but Katherine supposed she should explain it to the exorcist now.

At least Anna wouldn’t know.

“You’re a pain in my ass,” the ghost scoffed, levitating towards the exorcist, “I’m only telling you this once. We’re not bringing this up again, and you’ll swear to never tell Anna about any of this.”

Maggie and Anna traversed the dark tunnel, with Maggie holding out a lantern and Anna following her classmate closely behind. The tunnel didn’t seem to be decorated in any way, and it appeared to be a simple tunnel that could easily be found in a cave. Anna could see the end of the tunnel, which appeared to be a fairly ordinary room with a few lockers.

The cavern that led them to the room was partly submerged in water, which Anna found to be a little irritating.

After the two reached the room, Maggie walked over to one of the lockers, then began fumbling with the lock on the metallic door.

Anna peeked over to see what the object Maggie took out was. The mystery slammed the locker door shut once something had been taken out, and she then proceeded to place her yorishiro onto a nearby table, presenting it to her friend.

There was a normal notebook laid out on the table. The book had a few marks, obviously hinting at how many times it had been flipped open. On the cover, there was a seal that looked similar to the one on Katherine’s cheek, except for the part that this seal was black and white instead of red and white.

“What do I do now?” She looked up at Maggie.

“Rip that seal off and we’re done here.”

Anna took another look at the notebook, before picking it up to examine the pages inside.

“Please don’t.” Maggie requested, which made Anna pause in her observation, “open it only when you don’t have any other choice. I promise you’ll be able to read everything inside, just not now.”

Anna glanced back and forth between Maggie and the notebook, then placed it back onto the table with a sorrowful nod, “sure.”

It wasn’t like this is the first time she has been denied information anyways.

Secrets. Who knew it’d be the thing troubling her the most? She definitely didn’t expect to be in this position when she first knocked on that bathroom stall, that’s for sure.

It was infuriating. The key to everything she wanted to know, the missing puzzle piece to her current mystery was laid out bare in front of her eyes tosee, but she can’t even read a single page of it? Wouldn’t it be better if she had just flipped open that book right now, would it solve everything she’s so confused about? Will all her problems dissolve with a single decision?

Well, considering how she first got to here, a singe action was enough to make her life spiral down, so who’s to say the opposite won’t happen?

She stared at the notebook with a longing look on her face, it was so evident on her face that Maggie had caught on to it instantly.

“She gave this notebook to me,” she suddenly told the other, who ripped their gaze away from the book.

“Who?”

“Katherine. She gave it to me while she was.... still alive. She never told me why, though. She had so many other options, but she chose me. I’m not sure what came over her that day.” Maggie sighed out, taking a seat on the ground, “she... I don’t know why she decided to...”

“Within the four years I’ve been acting as the curator of the 4PM Bookstacks, I’ve never seen anyone change their futures.” She began a new topic, “that was the case for most of those books outside, but there was one that apparently didn’t apply to this rule. When I got the news that Katherine had... passed away, I rushed over here to check her record. When I opened up her book, her future changed completely.”

“You mean.... her death wasn’t something you expected?”

“Not at all. Her book first said that she’d live an eventful life with her cousins and friends. Obviously that didn’t happen.” Maggie continued, dropping her gaze down to the floor, “she was the only person I’ve seen who was able to change their future, which means the only way to do it is to... die.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“I figured you would want to know. I wouldn’t stop you from reading a random notebook.” She tilted her head back up to face her classmate, a solemn expression was on her face as she shared the moment with Anna.

“Do I really have to wait?” Anna asked, and the student on the ground gave her a small nod.

She peered down at the notebook once again. Anna took a deep breath, then closed her eyes as she touched the seal. Maggie continued to watch on the ground, and like ripping off a bandaid, Anna tore the seal off of the notebook.

As soon as the seal left the surface of the notebook, the boundary had instantly broke apart. The place shattered like glass, the pieces crumbling into small triangular shards.

A orange hue set into one of the classrooms of Kamome Academy, and a conversation had ensued between two familiar faces.

_“I can’t accept this.” Maggie claimed as she pushed the notebook back towards the other student._

_The book slid across the classroom desk, soon reaching the other girl inside the room._

The student on the other side of the desk wore a high ponytail, but their hair was fully brown, none of it was dyed. There was a strange scar around their neck, which stood out from their appearance the most, since nothing was used to cover it. The girl was wearing the regular uniform that Anna and her classmates had always worn, which was... odd?

The student who sat on the other side was clearly Katherine Howard, but she doesn’t look like her ghostly form anymore.

Anna stood still in confusion. The last thing she remembered was ripping off the seal on Maggie’s yorishiro, so what’s this? A past memory? That’d be her best guess, since the scene happening before her should be impossible.

_“Please, you’re the only person I trust with this.” Katherine begged the Maggie, then quickly pushed the book back towards her._

_“What about Anne? Or maybe Jane? They’re your cousins! I’m just... your friend.”_

_“They.... I can’t. I can’t give this to them, you’re the only one. Just accept it! Please! For my sake?”_

What the hell was happening?

If Anna’s deductions were correct, then was this the day Katherine had entrusted the notebook to Maggie? Does ripping the seal off have something to do with this?

Those questions had ran through her mind as she witnessed the interaction. Good thing the two couldn’t see her, because that’d be awkward as hell.

_“...what are you planning, Kat?”_

_“I just... I know there’s a way to bring them back. Trust me, I’ll bring them all back safe and sound, just please keep that notebook with you for now. Don’t show it to anyone else, especially not Anne.”_

_“The more you tell me, the more I suspect you. I’m really not sure about this, Kat. Why do you want them back so badly? Who can be even more important to you than your cousin?”_

_“She was there for me when I needed it. I have to repay her somehow.”_

After Katherine’s last reply, she stood up from her chair, leaving Maggie alone with the notebook.

Everything else that followed was darkness.

Cathy paced around the medical room of the school, biting her fingernails as she anxiously waited for Anna to wake up.

Everything had become so clear and obvious to Cathy once Katherine had told her the truth.

Well, the ghost didn’t tell her the whole truth behind it, but a single word was enough to explain everything.

_“Reincarnation.”_

She would’ve berated herself for how stupid she was to not figure that out sooner, but the sudden collapse of the boundary had presented another problem to her.

After Katherine and Cathy escaped from the 4PM Bookstacks, they found an unconscious Anna lying on the ground in the centre of the library, with Maggie sitting peacefully next to her. When the two asked the curator what had happened, Maggie just returned their query with a simple shrug.

After some forced explanations from the fifth mystery, they were informed that Anna was just under the effects of destroying a yorishiro, which was supposed to be a normal reaction.

While she’s under the effects, it’s extremely likely for her to see pieces of memories, but Maggie wasn’t sure about what the memories would be exactly. Still, that calmed the two down significantly, since they knew that Anna was unharmed.

But then came the next part of destroying a boundary, the fallout.

“Do you still have your abilities?” Katherine asked Maggie, who was currently taking care of the unconscious student.

“I have other ways of retrieving records, don’t worry about it.” Maggie replied as she checked on Anna.

“Why did you have to destroy her yorishiro?” Cathy questioned the seventh mystery, who then began another much needed explanation.

“The rumours are able to change any mystery. As long as it is being spread around, supernaturals will change their behaviour. If that radio channel continues spreading those rumours about us being overly dangerous, then we’d have a repeat of the faeries incident. The affect of it would be even worse if it’s a mystery who turns, so it’s best for us to take away the powers of the seven mysteries for now, until the radio channel is dealt with.”

“I’m sure you’ve dealt with hostile supernaturals, you know how dangerous they can be, so we have to prevent the rumours from changing a mystery.” Maggie added onto the explanation.

“Ah, I see.” Cathy responded to their explanation calmly, keeping a close eye on Anna, “do we have to continue this with every mystery?”

“Unfortunately, we must do it in order to protect the students of the academy.” Katherine claimed, fixing her glance to the view outside.

Much time has passed after they’ve explored the 4PM Bookstacks, and it’s already nighttime.

“We’re putting her in too much danger.” Cathy pointed out to the two, who glanced at the student on the bed.

“It’s the only way.” Katherine told Cathy, floating closer towards the exorcist, then putting a hand on her shoulder, “I won’t let her get hurt.”

A black spirit roamed through the academy. It floated towards the broadcasting room, then bumped its body onto the door.

A door soon opened up after the blob had hit it, and a hand welcomed it inside the room.

Inside the broadcasting room, the floor was slightly submerged in water. The room was dimly lit, with only one lightbulb hanging from the ceiling. A table was placed in one of the sides of the room, where a student wearing a pair of headphones sat in front of a microphone.

The black spirit flew over to the student, who extended their hand to the tiny spirit.

“Welcome back, did you have fun?”

The student then placed the spirit onto their desk, right next to their sketchbook.

A silvery giggle came from the blob, along with clouds of black smoke.

As the smoke cleared, a person was revealed under them. They floated on top of the table, playfully swirling around the student as they got to work, adjusting the radio next to them, as well as the microphone.

“Oh it was so nice seeing them all together! I’ll tell you all about it!” The person began curiously flipping through the notebook, when a certain page caught their eye.

The page was full of unidentifiable scribbles, along with the drawings of two towers. One tower seemed to belong to medieval times, while the other seemed more like a building from a fantasy novel.

“You’re working on the project I gave you, yes?”

“Of course, I vowed to follow your plan.”

“That’s great! Oh, let me tell you about that fight they had with that butterfly monster! Kitty came into the boundary and totally wrecked that thing! She sliced their head clean off, too! Looks like beheading people got to her head too much, eh?”

“It’s about time,” the student reminded the other, holding up a piece of paper, “let’s begin the broadcast, shall we?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the nice feedback! I enjoyed reading all of them :D

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to leave kudos or comments, I’d love to hear your feedback on how I can improve!


End file.
